Emily - that looks like a nice bike! I could never ride a single speed on my longer commutes because the one I used to have had a lot of big hills and the one I'm going to have starting next month is going to have a mountain!

Having a single speed does sound MUCH more fool proof..which is great for a commuter.

My long distance commuter has drop bars, but it actually came with flat bars and bar ends. I rode it like that twice and HATED it. Not only did I want more hand positions, but I had a few parts of my commute where I was crossing wide open spaces where wind was an issue. I really liked having the more aero position option if I needed it.

That said, conversion to drop bars is pretty easy, particularly on a single speed, so you could try it and convert later if you don't like it.